Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Is Kickstarter the best solution for independent creators?
Online Video News: Last week, YouTube star Freddie Wong made tech blog headlines when he launched a Kickstarter project to fund a new action/comedy web series about video games.The fact that he’s using Kickstarter isn’t news — it’s the fact that in 24 hours, he raised $77,000, $2,000 more than his fundraising goal of $75,000. As of Friday afternoon, with 21 days left, over $118,000 had been pledged. This is only the latest example of the thriving Kickstarter economy, which since 2009 has become an increasingly common way for independent creators to fund their projects.
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2 comments:
I like Kickstarter as a fundraiser for two reasons: one, as Elisha Yaffe speaks to in the article, it's a democratic "discovery engine" that connects even the smallest ideas with a network of eager donors, and two, the donor feels a part of the process and often, through the rewards associated with donation, gets credit or input that hopefully causes the project to succeed. More success stories means more creators and donors coming to the site, and more chance that a project can be funded. Like any other fundraising venture, though, there has to be some buzz and some early adopters before more people (and more people outside your personal network) will take notice. I completely agree with Jesse Thorn - Kickstarter can pull off miracles, but it has to be grounded and continually pushed forward by auxiliary efforts.
Kickstarter is an interesting way to raise money for your organization. It's great that there is a time table for the fundraising that allows those donating to feel accomplished since once the time runs up and the goal isn't met you are out of luck. However, the site does take a small portion, 5%, but they allow you to network and share your idea with friends, family, and complete strangers. As Brian points out, the more the buzz gets out about kickstarter, the more fun projects will appear and hopefully more donors to support them.
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